The global trend towards casualisation

Generally speaking, the term ‘casual’ has positive connotations – relaxed, informal, easy-going. Applied to the world of labour, though, the reverse is true. It describes a situation of increasingly insecure, pressure-driven employment, at the whim of employers whose demands may chop and change, forcing millions of workers to realign their lives, routines and other commitments in their struggles to get by: less casuals than casualties.

Passing the Buck: Corporate Restructuring and the Casualisation of Employment is the latest volume in the excellent Work Organisation Labour and Globalisation series*. It is reviewed here by Richy Leitch.

 

Beyond Robert’s Rules

The next time you have a members’ meeting, why not try running it according to the principles of “participative democracy”? (details). This approach seeks to encourage input from the largest possible number of people. It is not new — in fact it probably predates “representative democracy” — but it has received a lot of publicity lately because of its use (through sign language) in the “general assemblies” of the Occupy movement.

 

Perils of the Precariat

If you’ve been puzzling over this whole #Occupy thing, Guy Standing’s latest book “The Precariat: The Dangerous New Class”(1) is essential reading. If you’re a unionist or center-left politician who’s been wondering where the hell your membership base went (and how to win it back), ditto.

If Standing(2) is correct, then we can expect movements like Occupy to evolve and grow. Unfortunately, we can also expect a continuing revival among the extreme right. Hence the word “dangerous” in the title of the book.

At the heart of Standing’s book is the contention that a new class is developing. Just as the rise of the “proletariat” (or industrial working class) changed the face of the 20th century, so is the rise of the “precariat”(3) affecting us today. The implications of this shift are no less radical. Unionists who ignore this change, or cling to hopes of a revival of the 20th century model, are already following in the footsteps of the Guilds.

 

Ethics and union bylaws

Phil Lillies is an internal auditor with a deep interest in workplace democracy. Based in Canada, he has spent ten years applying his training in philosophy and organizational development to the study of internal workings of labour and community organizations. In this article he focuses on bylaws — the rules and regulations that do so much to reflect and condition union culture at local level. He offers some reflections on how to write bylaws that will help create a democratic, inclusive organization… one that will inspire and empower its members to support good causes during times of quiet as well as times of struggle. This will prepare the union to better face the future, no matter what it may bring.

 

Democratizing work through participative design

As Merrelyn Emery has shown (here), the democratic approach to work out-performs other approaches across the board. It’s a conclusion she has tested and proven over and over again in the course of her career. But how can workers create democratic workplaces, starting from the traditional autocratic base? As any unionist will tell you, democracy can’t be installed from above; it must be resolved upon and built from the bottom up. As Hal Draper put it, “Only by fighting for democratic power do (workers) educate themselves up to the level of being able to wield that power.” In this article Emery helps unions in this struggle by describing the “participative design” process, which sets out to change organizations from autocracies (or laissez faire systems) to sustainable democracies.

 

Aye – Occupy!

Along with so many unions and groups within the wider labour movement, the New Unionism Network has voted overwhelmingly to support the Occupy movement*. As a contribution, we are producing a series of leaflets by network members who have fully developed alternatives to the current system. (David Schweickart’s model here; Michael Albert’s model here).

Among the hundreds of unions and federations that have endorsed the movement and offered support are:

• ITUC – the International Trade Union Confederation (the world’s leading international union body) (details);
• WFTU – World Federation of Trade Unions (the second largest international body) (details);
• EI – Education International – largest of the sector-based “global union federations” (details);
• UNI global union – another of the global union federations (details);
• ITF – the International Transport Workers’ Federation (details);
  (We are still trying to find out about the other global union federations)
• AFL-CIO – the largest union federation in the U.S.A. (details);
• SEIU – largest union in Change to Win – the second largest federation in the U.S.A. (details);
• AFT – the American Federation of Teachers – largest union in the U.S.A. but independent from both of the federations above (details);

(Other U.S. unions…)

The movement went global in October. More than 2,500 Occupy groups are currently listed on the global hub, Occupy Together. However, OccupyWallStreet – the group who catalysed the movement in the U.S.A. – has since been evicted. Similar actions have closed sites across many other cities. There have been 1200 arrests in New York alone. With 2012 approaching, we are about to find out if this is a movement or just a moment.

 

Is a new unionism developing in Israel?

The social and democratic revolutions that have been sweeping the Middle East have redrawn the political map and rewritten the regional rules, writes Assaf Adiv*, National Coordinator of WAC-Maan. Antagonisms between Israel, the Arab world and the Palestinians have taken on a new dimension, in light of the movement for change in Arab states. Revolutionaries in Tunisia and Egypt have brought down the regimes of Ben Ali and Mubarak, shifting the center of power back to the street. The order that has prevailed in the region for more than 30 years is being shaken to the core.

 

The DOJO of Organizing: Five practices of the empowered shift

Here’s the third article in our popular series from Rex Lai, following on from the TAO and SHIH of union organizing. In this article, Rex looks at the DOJO of organizing. Literally, “Do” means practice and “Jo” means place. What are the practices of successful organizing, and what are the places we must create in order to achieve success? As a metaphor, the Dojo captures the art and the discipline of effective organizing.

 

Reviving the strike

Here’s an interview with Joe Burns, union negotiator, U.S. attorney and author of  “Reviving the Strike: How working people can regain power and transform America” (IG Publishing, 2011).

We contacted Joe after reading this book, which looks primarily at the situation in the U.S.A., and asked him what lessons other countries might take from his research. In short, he believes that we need to build a new unionism — one which is based on global solidarity and is willing and able to contest management decisions and, if necessary, stop production.

 

Communications workers and global value chains

‘Knowledge work’ is increasingly significant in global value chains – where creating, processing and transporting information plays a crucial role – but the analysis of this area of employment enjoys less attention. What is the scope for unionisation? How might this work across borders? The latest edition of the journal “Work, Organisation, Labour and Globalisation” (Getting the Message: Communications workers and global value chains, Ed Catherine McKercher and Vincent Mosco, Volume 4 no 2, 2010) looks at the growth of communication work and its political potential within the global economy. Richy Leitch reviews it for us below. You can buy the book or download the full text of individual articles here: http://goo.gl/IsN78.